The first, on an individual level, is as a kind of cognitive therapy or as a way of generating rules of conduct: if you believe certain propositions, or try to make yourself believe them, the world becomes more tolerable and your behaviour better adapted to it. This need not be because they are simply grand untruths. It might be because they are needed to balance other grand untruths generated by default by other bits of my mind.

Later:

..., I knew on one level that my fears were ridiculous, and that there are in fact no lions on Swiss alps, no wolf-packs in the lake district and no giant carnivorous elk anywhere. But the only thing that made them go away was to behave as if I were not frightened and to summon up images of my spiritual self as a larger, more dangerous beast than anything to be found around me. Propositional truth did nothing for my fears. Propositional falsehood worked.

Helen blushed, and Sister Teresa seemed to read her thoughts. "In the beginning, we all feel a bit like imposters in our capes and veils and being called 'Sister.' But don't worry about it - just act like you think a nun should when you're not sure what to do, and you'll find that through grace and love, you become one."

Downeast Transportation offers YEAR ROUND public bus transportation around SWH and one or two stops in Bass Harbor on Wednesday (only) for $1.00. All buses are accessible with wheel chair lifts. Trips to and from Ridge Apt, the library, SWH medical center, Kozy Kove, Norwood Cove apt., the Food Mart, Double J, Bass Harbor post office, Birchwood Apt. etc. can be made (on Wednesday) without a car. Downeast Transportation also offers trips to and from Bar Harbor to Ellsworth and Bangor EVERY Monday and Friday (year round). The cost is $9.00 round trip. Downeast Transportation buses are available to ALL of us--They are not just for the elderly or those living in housing. They also have schedules that could be handed out at the food pantry. (A schedule is currently posted on the bulletin board in the undercroft)

Come Home for Supper on Friday, April 4! If you're willing to be a host (a very easy and lovely opportunity) please contact Barnes...244-7985, Bromage...244-3227, or Craig....244-5267, and remember to sign up this Sunday, March 30th, so the committee can plan for this always enjoyable evening.

The Best Ever Spaghetti Dinner, held at the S.W. Harbor Congregational Church on the High Road, will benefit the Westside Food Pantry and will be on Saturday, April 5th from 4:30-7:00p.m. The cost is $5.00 for adults; $3.00 for children 12 and older and no more than $15.00 for a family. Children under 12 are free!

Tired of the same old faces at church? Invite a friend! Invite a neighbor! Welcome a stranger!

Between the Services:

Dear SJ Member, In response to my recent note regarding our Sunday Forum, I have had several good replies with useful comments and suggestions. If you have not weighed in with your views/wishes, please do so at william.baker@umit.maine.edu

This Sunday, March 30, Jean Rohrer and Mary Mitchell will present "Medical Missions in Ecuador," based on their recent work there.

For the month of April, the following schedule has nicely taken shape:

April 6: Bible Study: "St. Luke: The Gospel for All People" (Please read afresh the entire Gospel of Luke by April 6.)

April 13: Mary Anna Fox, "Compassion International: Ministering to Children in the Dominican Republic." Ms. Fox is a member of the Southwest Harbor Congregational Church.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

"Author Buckland, Lawrence FTitle The recording of Library of Congress bibliographical data in machine form; a report prepared for the Council on Library Resources, incPublisher Washington, Council on Library Resources, 1965

"Alex Russel, creator of the Dojo web toolkit, discusses the future of mobile phone development based on his experience in the mobile, security, and web development industries. He claims that although smart phones are increasing in power, they will not be a suitable platform for open source development. That, and restrictions by handset makers and network operators, mean that the web is the only viable platform for developing mobile phone applications in the future."

I'm pretty sure Alex refers to the lack of "thingification" as one of the the problem with the mobile network. Does that bascially mean the ability to attach a url to something and pass it around? I also missed other, possibly important terms. It's worth listening to again.

I'm saddened and sometimes amazed of the vehemence and pervasiveness of critiques of Hugo Chavez and the socio-political experiment going on in the relatively democratic Venezuela as compared with governments with whom the United States is, if not friendly, at least tightly allied, say Saudi Arabia or say, Nigeria. Avowedly unbiased NPR is not exempt. A case in point: the interview a few months ago with Joe Kennedy and his work with the Venezuelan government to bring less expensive fuel oil to low income people in the northeastern United States. Joe would point out the relative levels of democracy between Venezuela and most other major oil producing states, but the interviewer wouldn't hear it and kept insisting, well, I ought really go find the interview and reference it.

Self critique: Is this really the same as the failure of American leftist to give up on Stalin as the reality of his rule became known? I hope not. I don't think so. I think the Venezuelan rich have not been had their wealth stripped or been imprisoned simply because of their wealth.

The current state of Russia illustrates my long time assertion, which I think predated the fall of the wall, that what we claimed to object to in the Soviet Union were at least as much Russian characteristics as Communist characteristics. This leads me to the conclusion that what they (? - conservatives? Protestants?) was the government helping out either poor people or just people different than the speaker. They tended not to object to the government helping them out, be they defense contractors or farmers or their particular flavor of worship.

Recently I came across a Wikipedia article in which there was a style notice suggesting that the page ought to be rewritten as prose as opposed to the list that it was. I've not been able to re-find it, but I'd like to see their reasoning on the issue since I'm much inclined to make lists and outlines of my ideas instead of prose and don't particularly see why it ought to be prose. On the other hand, I admire well written non-fiction prose, say John McPhee or Richard.

For now I'm giving up on updating http://mshook.googlepages.com/ttotd2delicious02.html to use http://textingtermoftheday.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=processFeed instead of http://www.google.com/reader/public/javascript/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/TTOTD?n=3&callback=getPosts as its source. I want to because I think that the blogspotJSON feed may update sooner than the reader feed.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I was walking along one day and I noticed up ahead this guy who had a banana in his ear. So I said, "Hey Mister - You've got a banana in your ear." He kept walking, so I said a little louder, "Hey Mister - You've got a banana in your ear." He just kept walking, so I called out as loud as I could, "Hey Mister! You've got a banana in your ear!" Still, he just kept walking. So I ran up ahead of him and turned around and put up my hands so he would stop and shouted as loud as I could, "HEY MISTER! YOU'VE GOT A BANANA IN YOUR EAR!" He stopped and looked at me and said, "Sorry, I can't hear you sonny, I've got a banana in my ear."

I remember that joke from my childhood (that's in the 1950's - way before Bert and Ernie did it) and my Mom laughed every time she heard it.

OED Online Word of the Day

An unsurpassed guide to the meaning and history of millions of words, both present and past, the Oxford English Dictionary Online is the most powerful online lexical resource on the Internet! Subscribe today for only $29.95 a month, and you can have access to the "greatest work in dictionary making ever undertaken." – The New York Times

jojoba, n.

a. A desert shrub, Simmondsia chinensis (family Simmondsiaceae), native to northern Mexico and the south-western U.S., that is used for the oil it yields. Also, = *jojoba oil below.

1900 E. J. WICKSONCalifornia Fruits (ed. 3) 43 The 'jajoba' (Simmondsia californica) is a low shrub, the fresh fruits of which..are eaten like almonds. 1933Bot. Gaz. LXXXXIV. 826 Simmondsia californica, commonly known in the southwest as 'jojobe' or 'jojove', is an evergreen shrub. 1958Econ. Bot. XII. 261 Jojoba, the gray box bush, is a drought-resistant, long-lived, evergreen, desert shrub bearing fruit like an acorn set in sepals. 1983Houston (Texas) Chron. 21 Aug. I. 19/5 The August harvest of jojoba looks good so far, raising the spirits of manufacturers of just about everything from food to floor wax. 1989Times 31 Aug. 25/6 Jojoba is hardly absorbed in the gutan attractive feature if you are trying to make low-calorie foods. 1989Sunday Tel. 10 Dec. 43/4 Brown paper wrapped grapefruit and jojoba soap, £2.25.

b.jojoba oil, oil extracted from the fruit of the jojoba, used in cosmetics and as a substitute for sperm oil.

1975Nature 22 May 272/3 Chemical analysis of jojoba oil has confirmed that it is strikingly similar in composition to sperm oil. 1986Look Now Oct. 68/2 The Renewer Lotion contains collagen, jojoba oil and a special firming ingredient to smooth and soften the skin.

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